Diabetes would become a curable disease in the next few years, say researchers

Washington: Although the way diabetics test their glucose levels has gone through dramatic changes over the past 50 years, there is still a long way to go, say researchers.

Earlier, the only way to assess diabetes control was by testing for the presence of sugar in a person’s urine, today there are numerous, far more accurate ways to test blood glucose levels.

There is a non-invasive A1C method which measures average blood glucose levels over a three-month period.

“This gives us a nice marker for showing whether a person is on the right road or not,” said Fred Whitehouse, division head emeritus at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit.

“There has been a lot of change, most of it for the better. But what people want is a cure and we don’t have that yet”, he added.

“Despite the enormous growth in our understanding of diabetes and its complications, we are still only able to manage the disease,” noted Robert Ratner, Chief Scientific and Medical Officer for the American Diabetes Association.

The reason diabetes is a serious health problem is because of the complications.

“If there were no complications, diabetes would be like hypothyroidism and other easily managed diseases. You would take a tablet to replace the hormone and everything would be fine,” said Michael Brownlee from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine’s Diabetes Research Centre.

New treatments must provide optimal glucose and metabolic control without the risk of hypoglycemia and complications of diabetes should become historical memories.

Also, every person with diabetes needs to create a system for remembering and dealing with his or her own treatment.

“The next 50 years must elucidate the mechanisms by which both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes occur, along with those critical steps at which we might intervene to prevent disease,” the authors emphasized during a special symposium held recently at the American Diabetes Association’s 75th scientific sessions. (IANS)

Your wife’s high body mass index (BMI) can increase your risk of developing Type-2 diabetes — a condition that affects over 400 million people worldwide, a study has found.

The findings showed that a man, whose wife had a BMI of 30 kg/m2, had a 21-per cent higher risk of developing diabetes than men whose wives had a BMI of 25 kg/m2 – regardless of the man’s own BMI.

However, the same was not found in women.

“If we adjusted for the women’s own weight, they did not have a heightened risk of developing Type-2 diabetes as a result of their husband’s BMI. But even when we adjusted for the weight in men, they had a heightened risk,” said lead author Jannie Nielsen, post-doctoral student at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

The risk of diabetes is also connected to dental health via glucose tolerance.

The researchers believe that it is so because women are largely in charge of the household and diets.

“We believe it is because women generally decide what we eat at home. That is, women have greater influence on their spouse’s dietary habits than men do,” Nielsen added, in a paper published in the journal Diabetologia.

For the study, the team examined data from 3,649 men and 3,478 women.

Based on the results, Nielsen believes that early detection of Type-2 diabetes can be improved if we change our approach to the disease.

“Our approach to Type-2 diabetes should not focus on the individual, but instead on, for example, the entire household. If a woman has a heightened risk, there is a strong probability that it is shared by her husband,” Nielsen said. (IANS)